MIT Sloan Management Review Article on The Four Guardrails That Enable Agility

Large organizations can move as fast as startups if leaders empower employees to act autonomously via well-defined constraints.

What does it take for a large, established business to be as responsive to changing market conditions as the startups in its industry are? That question is a vital one for leaders seeking to move nimbly to address new customer demands and competitive shifts.

The answer often lies in a single word: empowerment. Startups typically empower their teams to make quick decisions, take risks, and explore novel ideas. These nimble teams operate with a level of autonomy that enables them to rapidly sense and seize opportunities that arise from changes in technologies, competition, and customer needs. In doing so, they iteratively move toward achieving their strategic objectives.

About the Author

Nick van der Meulen is a research scientist at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR).

Learn more about MIT SMR.